, 1887-07-28
: 4 GREAT BRIDGE. /:
JOEL BENTON WRITES OF A RAIL
ROAD ENTERPRISE. -



the Hudson-A Pleasant Visit to an I'm
pOrtant Engineering Work - How the
Undertaking is Going Forward. -
Few people are very distinctly impressed, !
imagine, with the stupendOus work that is
now going on at Poughkeepsie with reference
to a railroad crossing over the Hudson river.
That 4 project to bridge the river at that city
has been frequently talked of almost every
body knows. The opposition to it, which al
ways happens when any bridge eudeavors to
cross any navigable stream, has done moro
than anything to call it to recent attention;
but even now the magnitude of the scheme IS
hardly realized by the general public. When
1t Is remembered, however, that the distance
from shore to shore at that point is 3,O94
feet, that the approaches on the Poughkeep-
sic side consist of q viaduct of 5000 feet in
length" while on the west side the approaches
add 1000 feet Tore-making i'll all one and
one-half miles almost-iG will be seen that the
bridge Is to take rank as one of the greatest
structures of the kind in the world. One
bridge only, it is said, will be longer, and
that Is the bridge over the Firth OF Forth in
Great Britain, which is in progress, but
which is not yet built.
A few days since, on the invitation of Mr..
J. D. Platt, editor of The Poughkeepsie Daily
Eagle, Joined company of $50, who, avail
ing themselves of the steamboat G.. S. Has
brouck and one of the pleaSantest of May
days, made free and easy excursion around
the piers and cribs of the bridge and for some
distance above and below the bridge
site. The activity of the men engaged in
the construction of this great work was
thus easily seen. About CSC arc now
employed on the spot, which force is soon to
be increased one-third, until 1860 are at
work away and III shops on the iron and
steel which is to go into it.
The promoters of this bridge have already
gone through with quite history in its behalf.
The company was organized first in a legal
way III 1871; and fine amended act in 1872
permitted the placing of four piers in the
river, lat distances of not less than 500 feet
apart" In 1873 the work was begun, but the
financial panic which soon followed put an
early quietus upon it. Several years later it
was taken up again, when other difficulties
called 1t to halt. Last year, however, new
and extensive capital was enlisted; and it is
under the impetus Of this accession that the
structure is going so rapidly up. Unless the
charter Is eXtended-though it is expected
this favor will be shown-the whole work
must be ready for use by Jan. !, 1891 Hence
the present tumultuous hurry and rush of the
builders seen from either shore
The present situation is this: The shore
piers, consisting each one of three smaIIes.
piers, are ''built up from the rock to a height
OF forty-five feet above high water" The
river piers ''to- be carried down to depth of
from l25 to I'D feet below the surface" are all
under way. In doing this part of the woik
nf I,.sIE
by 100 feet long, weighted by having pockets
filed with concrete, and sunk by dredging
through the open spaces, which are twelve
IN number, i'll each caisson.n This is differ
ent method from that used in the BROOKLYN
and St Louis bridges; and, while it
Is more effective, it is said not to
involve the danger and expense which
the pneumatic caissOnS do. Gas the caissons
sink they are built up by additions from the
top, so that when the lower edges rest upon
the solid substratum underlying the mud and
silt at the bottom of the river the top will be
about twenty feet below the surface. The
open spaces are then filed with concrete, the
top leveled and a solid platform laid upon it,
and then masonry built on this" The piers,
when completed, will have their length of
eighty feet parallel with tine river They
will be twenty-five feet wide, and will stand
thirty feet above the surface.
The pier farthest west in the river was
nearly completed years ago. The caisson for
the one next to it is done. and sthe work of
dredging is going on. 1t is nearly down TO
its final position, the top being already sew
eral feet above the surface" The third cais-
son IS placed and IS being forced down, and
caisson No. is about completed The piles
of timber and the car loads not yet thrown
off on the west shore make an impressive
sight.
Although the bridge, properly so called, is
to be of steel, the false work and the wood
sunken make heavy inroads on the forest.
"The massive substructures Will contain
alone about az, ,OOO, 900 feet OF tiniber.n To
this add 40, ,0ON cubic yards of concrete and
10000 yards of masonry" as additions to the
iron and steel components From the various
piers steel towers 200 feet high will be erected.
The height of the under side of the trusses
above the water will be 130 feet There will
be two rectangular steel truss spans, each of
SIS feet and 50 feet high. The three remain
ing spans are cantileveTS, the cantilever arms
being 1G0 feet each, and the connecting truSses
2l2 feet. The height of the connecting tI1Isses
will be lG2 feet from the water surface and
the height Of the rail on top PIP feet. The
cantilevers extending from the river piers
will be counterbalanced by the rectangular
Grusses, and those on the shore pieces by in
shore arms each 200 feet long, attached to
the anchorages. I have not myself. of
course, made these measurements, but Mr..
Platt, who made it possible to see the work in
its progress from every point of view, kindly
furnished the statistics 1 should have said,
however, before finishing with figures, that
the viaducts are to be of iron, and that about
1900 tons of steel and over G,OO0 tons of
iron" are to go into the structure
The bridge is building TO connect the coal
fields and the west more closely with New
England, and to make freight expenses
cheaper by carrying it over the Hudson with
out rehandling. 1t will have q double rail-
way track, and will be "capable of holding
eighty-five ton locomotives, covering tie
whole length of both tracks, the ultimate
strength of materials being equal to five times
this strain.o
1t is problem even in Poughkeepsie as to
what effect the bridge may have upon the
growth of that city. But the general SUPPOSE
tion is that it will be favorable 1t is claimed
that as the bridge will make Poughkeepsio
practically as near the anthracite coal fields
as Weehawken now Is, coal sent to New
York from there viii certainly be compelled
to cross the river at Poughkeepse. Ono
thing the recent visit of out of town specta-
tors settled thoroughly. at least for them
selves, If the piers which have stool in the
river for fifteen years have NOT settled il be-
fore, and that is that the free navigation of
the stream will not be affected by = structure
Ike this. If the Great Eastern could not 90
through sideways it might GiisGo..llIy, and,
instead of impeding nIe channel the piers are
much more likely 10 aSsist the naturally slow
current OF the Hudson i'll keeping the cham
hei deep. Built as 1t Is designed it will be q
magnificent structure, and one which it will
be worth, when completed, crossing the con-
Nnent to see. JOEL BESTON-
we VGNSON NY my AekeFs Si;
10 1varronta5 =; l :. -Hi